Dinner for a Cold Winter Night: Pork Chop Casserole with Fennel and Apple

Dinner for a Cold Winter Night:  Pork Chop Casserole with Fennel and Apple

(c) Dorine Houston 2008, all rights reserved

It’s winter again, time to be thinking about those warming dinners and the people with whom we love to share them.  One of my favorite people with whom to share dinner is a niece who is as beautiful inside as she is outside, unusually mature and quite smart and amusing to boot.  I was thinking about her and perusing the contents of my refrigerator, and came up with this pork chop casserole, its flavors a bit unusual and winter-comforting. 

Pork Chop Casserole with Fennel and Apple

(c) Dorine Houston 2008, all rights reserved

2 pork chops, lightly seasoned to taste
Grated zest of 1/4 orange 
1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced 
1 Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced (or other tart apple) 
1/4 cup Cointreau

Lightly season pork chops if you like and rub both sides with the finely grated orange zest.  Set on a plate to rest for at least 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 350 F. 

Toss together the remaining ingredients and season lightly to taste.  Generously butter a rectangular casserole.  I strongly recommend unsalted real butter for optimum flavor, not margarine, vegetable grease or anything else.  Put half the fennel and apple mixture into the casserole.  Lay the pork chops on top, side by side and cover with the remaining fennel and apple mixture.  Dot top with chilled butter bits. 

Cover tightly and bake about 30 minutes, until the pork is done and the fennel and apples tender.  Exact time depends on the thickness of the pork chops. 

Serve with hot buttered mashed rutabaga or brown rice or wide egg noodles dressed with butter and caraway seeds.  Excellent accompanied by Belgian lambic framboise.  Precede with stuffed mushrooms or puree of cauliflower soup. 

Dessert?  A Russian friend sent me a wonderful Christmas present, a box of chocolate “vodka beans”.  They are bean-shaped chocolate truffles flavored with vodka and robed in dark chocolate ganache.  (Have I ever told you about my experiences with Russian and Ukrainian chocolates?  They know from chocolate over there!)  The aforementioned niece has tasted and thoroughly approved. 

A variation of this dish that occurred to me was to use only half the fennel bulb and add a carrot cut into matchsticks.  Matchsticks of turnip, celeriac or other seasonal root vegetables would be nice, too.  Even in cold regions of the US, sustainable farmers overwinter these vegetables to make fresh local produce available in the markets in the dead of winter.